ASUU admonishes students, stakeholders, as consultation moves to NEC level

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has admonished students and stakeholders who were angling for early resumption of academic activities following its recent agreement with government, to exercise patience and allow the union go throw it’s led down internal process before reaching a decision on the matter

The Chairman of the UNIABUJA chapter of the union, Dr Ben Ugheoke told Daily Times in an exclusive interview that presently the union is to meet at the national level having concluded consultations at the zonal level, and that only the NEC of the union can make pronouncement on when the strike will be suspended.

In a related development, the National President of ASUU, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, has maintained that the union will not disclose when it will hold its meetings to consider the Federal Government’s offers, aimed at resolving the ongoing strike.

Prof. Ogunyemi who also spoke to Daily Times on telephone, while responding to inquiry as to when the union would meet to examine the Federal Government’s offers and resolve the strike, said they wouldn’t want to be ambushed or stampeded but preferred being allowed to take their decision without let
Recall that the union and the Federal Government’s delegation held a 14-hour meeting on Thursday, after which they issued a communiqué, in which ASUU was asked to revert to the government within one week.

The ASUU President had on Friday said in an interview that he could not determine when the union would call off its strike until its members met to decide the next course of action.

This is also as the National Association of Nigerian Students on Saturday promised to meet the ASUU executives and consider the government’s offers with a view to ending the strike.

The NANS spokesperson, Bestman Okereafor, had said this in a statement released in Enugu State.

When contacted to comment on when the union would meet to consider the government’s positions, the ASUU President said in a text message, “Good morning. Sorry. We don’t tell outsiders the arrangements of our meetings. Have a great day.”
Meanwhile the National Association of Nigerian Students has appealed to the Academic Staff Union of Universities to accept the offers made by the Federal Government and to call off the ongoing strike.

Recall that the Federal Government’s team dialoguing with ASUU had agreed to set-up a seven-man joint committee to look into all ASUU demands as well as agreed to release billions of naira to meet universities infrastructural needs.

The current agreement was reached after about 12 hours and 30 minutes of a closed door meeting in Abuja on Thursday.

“NANS is passionately appealing to ASUU to consider the offer made by the Federal Government in the interest of Nigerian students,” the National Public Relations Officer of NANS, Comrade Bestman Okereafor, said in a statement.